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GE M250R2 - My 1st True StreetLight
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I've got a few various HID fixtures, but this one is my first actual streetlight (and its new too).
Haven't yet decided where its gonna end up...
I'll eventually need to find a photocell (even just a shorting cap) and some sorta pipe/bracket to use for mounting.
And a lamp...(anyone know if there's a way to run MH lamps on a HPS ballast??)
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If you want I can give you a couple photocells, I mean you live close to me at the moment and maybe I can just give you a few. Before I move to Arkansas.
You can get a PC at Lowe's or Home Depot. Or if you want I can send you one of mine.
You can run MH lamps on 100V 150W HPS but this is 55V HPS (100V HPS is rare) so no, there is no way to run MH (or MV for that matter).
We use to install these on our system before we went with AE. We use 100/150 ballasts as opposed to carrying 2 separate fixtures. I personally prefer the ge simply due to the quality. I will give AE credit for their latch design over ge though.
100/175W MV fixtures were the big thing here, with 240V reactor ballast with PCs wired for 120V. Pretty unique fixture wiring used around here! Now of course they just use regular single wattage 120V HPS lights. GE's quality has gone downhill too over the past 20 years. Still good fixture IMO but their 80s fixtures were better. GE's fixtures were at their best in the 60s. I think the mid-60s M-250R, M-400, and M-1000 were the best cobraheads ever made out there. the early 60s ones were great too but they seem to get really rusty inside, at least in the humid salty climate here. The 1965-1969 GEs seem better built to me than the pre-'65 ones. Just in my opinion though.
Do you use any Cooper lights?
We don't use cooper hid, however we do still have many Crouse hinds still in service. They seem reliable for the most part so long as birds don't get in them. Drives me nuts when they get installed w/o the bird guards. We are going with cooper brand LED's here soon as soon as we deplete the hadco stock we have.
Yeah I have a 1990 Cooper OVC, 50W HPS. Nice fixture. I like it a lot. The casting seems very thin to me but a nice looking fixture. It was only in service a little over 5 years.
What year is your M-250A2? I have an M-250A2 FCO from 1987. It was originally 100/175W MV (they used a lot of those in the 80s here) and it was removed in the early 90s and rebuilt as a 50W HPS unit. I have a spare blank ballast door that I installed a 250W Advance MH/MV ballast on so I can make my M-250A2 FCO 50W HPS or 250W MH or 250W MV. Right now it's installed in my backyard with the 250W door and a /DX Sylvania merc from 2010. Not used regularly, just for parties. If I had it in nightly use I'd use the 50W door and then just swap the door and lamp when we had parties for brighter white light and then revert back to the 50W HPS so the meter isn't racing all night. Since it's FCO it wouldn't bother the neighbors, though if I were to use a MH lamp I'd probably swap the FCO glass for a drop glass since I don't think an FCO glass would contain a lamp explosion. The lamp is within an inch or less of the glass so the impact would probably be the equivalent of smacking the glass with a rubber mallet.
I had no idea Lowe's/Home Depot even sold PC's, figured I'd have to find one on eBay .. Lil'Cinnamon I might just take you up on that offer.
I assumed a MH or MV lamp would not work, but wanted to douple check before getting a HPS one.
I think I'll check the local ReStore first, I know I've seen HPS lamps there in the past...
(Also whats a 'CosmoWhite' lamp? I've seen it mentioned on the ATL site & it supposedly works on HPS ballasts (is it just a less-orange HPS?))
Datecode is 04-07 .. so 4th week of 2007?
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Also interesting reading through all the replies
Yep 4th week of 2007.
As for the less yellow HPS lamps, I think Eye makes them but I believe they're not cheap so it might be cheaper to just reballast to MV or MH to get white light.
Yeah the MH retrofit lamps for use on HPS are only made for the 100V lamps here (400W and less commonly, 250W)